I need help! This just isn't doing anything and I'm stuck for ideas.

Hi

I posted not so long ago about stuff, especially about making sure I eat enough calories. Well, I've been doing (my version) primal now for nearly a month and I haven't lost any weight or inches. I don't feel any better - maybe just a bit actually as I'm not so bloated around the tummy area. My diet is typically between 500 and 1200 calories a day - genuinely! I've been eating fish as my main meal most days. I've added more fat to my diet some days. My main meal of the day is a ready meal so all the calories, carbs, fat etc are counted for me and it's better than my cooking. I tend not to eat until 3pm most days and have a single slice of seeded toast (9.5g net carbs - it has 5g fibre) with 1/2 to 1oz butter or I will have a lump of cheese - pre packed 1oz lump. Then about 8pm I will have my ready meal which is about 350 calories and 12g net carbs for salmon, green veg and 3 very small new potatoes (or max 18g on cod meal). The fibre per meal is around 10g give or take. If I'm very peckish I will have a sugar free jelly and cream or vanilla organic yoghurt after.

This all sounds pretty healthy to me and is about as primal as I've been able to get so far - moving from 100% veggie to eating fish etc. Occasionally I will eat an egg but nearly gagged the last time I did. I will have them scrambled next time so I don't taste them!

So, how comes I'm still a little fat blob on a diet like this??? And before you think it, I do not snack and forget about the snacks. I just don't eat very much. I'm really annoyed that nothing has changed other than losing the bloated feeling. I was feeling slimmer so I got the scales out tonight and nothing has moved. I thought that maybe I may have lost inches, but no! nothing, zilch.

Exercise - walking a bit here and there. Looking for somewhere to live so bit distracted to say the least. Life is very stressful at the moment, but even this much stress and lack of sleep etc should not account for no weight loss or health gains.

Please help someone.

thanks

ps: forgot to mention, I have a day off each Sunday and eat more than usual, but first Sunday was a good day, but by the second Sunday I had lost my appetite anyway. So can't blame my permanent plateau on overeating one day a week.

Last edited by Eve2206; 03-13-2013 at 02:17 PM.
Reason: forgot to mention

I know toast and SF jelly aren't primal, lol. But, really, I have to eat something. If I swapped the toast for scrambled eggs, fried in butter served with a bit of smoked salmon or veggie sausage then that comes to about 400 calories. Then my dins at 350 calories, then what? I could bake some salmon and keep it in the fridge for a snack, or have some cheese of an evening, but it's still very little. I won't be hungry though.

I don't mean to be on a starvation diet as I'm aware of the dangers of that. I'm just trying to keep my carbs around 50-70g per day and it's very easy to go over that. But on reflection, most days I don't exceed about 30g so still room to add more food, but want to avoid the junk I used to eat. Still, why am I not losing any fat/weight?

Maybe I just need to write up a proper nutrition sheet which includes veggies and fruits. But I'm a poor cook at best. I can cook meat dishes ok, but I don't eat them. It's the veggie stuff I'm no good at. I shall have a look at the blogs and recipes on here to see if there's anything I like the sound of.

"I think the basic anti-aging diet is also the best diet for prevention and treatment of diabetes, scleroderma, and the various "connective tissue diseases." This would emphasize high protein, low unsaturated fats, low iron, and high antioxidant consumption, with a moderate or low starch consumption.

In practice, this means that a major part of the diet should be milk, cheese, eggs, shellfish, fruits and coconut oil, with vitamin E and salt as the safest supplements."

Low carb =/= low cal. You can eat a reasonable amount of calories and still keep carbs low, and it sounds like that's where your problem is, which admittedly is compounded by the fact that you don't eat meat and eggs. Eat plain full-fat yogurt, not the sugar-laden vanilla crap. No wonder you're struggling to keep carbs low, what with that vanilla yogurt, bread and jelly.

Also, I'm confused - you're an ex-vegetarian who is not good at cooking vegetables?

You can lose weight and not be low carb. I've never done low carb a single day in my life. Holy crap 500 calories a day. Starvation mode is hard to hit but you can definitely not lose weight on that little food. Eat more and get a little exercise in.

F 28/5'4/100 lbs

"I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath; do your research."

I'm 5 foot, 56 years old female, and I weigh around 11 stone (couple of pounds under). Been thin all my life till about mid-40's then I gained weight. I gave up karate and running around about the same time though so that didn't help I guess.

Veggie - yes I was a junk food veggie, cheese, bread, chips (fries) veggie burgers, veggie spaghetti bolognese, etc etc anything easy to cook which usually involved stodge. I've tried cooking with lentils, beans, tofu and so on but don't usually like what ends up on my plate. I really do not have the patience for cooking fiddly veggie food, and I also have to cook something more mainstream for family. Happy with something like a piece of salmon or similar with some greens and a few potatoes. Or just a bit of fish with coleslaw and salad.

My old diet consisted of (on average), porridge (just water, no milk or sugar), quorn ham and salad sandwich for lunch, and a low fat/diet yoghurt, bar of choc in the afternoon or a piece of fruit, and an evening meal. Then before bed I would usually have ate some sort of junk - maybe toast or a biscuit etc. But looking at this now, I can see that I've never been a big eater, certainly not enough to explain the 33 + extra pounds I'm carrying.

I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself because the extra weight is making me ill - I just don't carry it well and I have achy knees and feet and hunched shoulders because of it. I had my gall bladder removed 6 years ago, but weight remains the same.

I prefer keeping the carbs under control as I feel less bloated without them. Low fat just makes me hungry and also doesn't stop me eating rubbish such as low fat candy bars! If I cut carbs and fat I can lose weight but that's not really healthy or sustainable. I genuinely am struggling a bit.